Elementary, Middle, and High School Students Vary in Frequency and Purpose When Using Online Digital References

Julie Elaine Stephens

摘要

A review of: Silverstein, Joanne. “Just Curious: Children’s Use of Digital Reference for Unimposed Queries and Its Importance in Informal Education.” Library Trends 54.2 (Fall 2005): 228-44. Objective – To determine 1) how and with what frequency children use digital references to answer their own unimposed questions; 2) whether digital reference services support their self-initiated learning; 3) whether digital reference services support the transfer of student motivation and curiosity from the formal to the informal; and 4) what instructional and software designers should consider in creating tools that support learning. Design – Inductive analysis. Setting – Virtual Reference Desk’s (VRD) Learning Center (http://vrd.askvrd.org/) and the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) digital reference service (http://www.esteme.org) during Excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Week (ESTEME), April 11-16, 2005. Subjects – Elementary (K-5), middle (6-8), and high school (9-12) students from the general public. One hundred fourteen questions were analyzed, however there is no indication of the number of different students who submitted the questions. Methods – This study was conducted using a pool of 600 questions from students, teachers, parents, and the general public that were submitted to two digital reference services intended for students. Three hundred experts in the fields of Math and Science volunteered to answer the submitted questions during Excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Week. Because the digital services employed a pull-down menu to describe the user as a student, teacher, parent, etc., the questions could be narrowed to those submitted by students. The questions were also narrowed to those marked as “just curious” from a question purpose menu that contained categories including “written report,” “science fair project,” and “just curious.” A total of 114 unique questions from elementary, middle, and high school students were analyzed to determine the study objectives. The 114 questions were loaded into a qualitative software application (HyperResearch) for inductive analysis. Questions from students were coded as elementary, middle, or high school and only those questions derived from students’ self-initiated interests were analyzed. Main results – Analysis revealed that elementary students submitted a large portion of the questions. Middle school students asked the most questions, of which some questions were compound (more than one question in a given query). Older students submitted the least amount of questions. an unanticipated finding was that students’ grade levels correlated to the foci of their queries, which regarded “My Life,” “My Stuff,” “Other People,” “The World,” “The Universe,” or “Thought.” High school students were interested in the narrowest foci pertaining to their immediate circumstance rather than the larger topics of other people, the world, and the universe. The majority of middle school students were interested in concepts, and 45% of elementary school students’ queries were about how the world works. Although this study was not longitudinal, results suggest that student curiosity may shift over time. Results also indicated that younger children demonstrated interests outside the classroom that were related to formal learning previously introduced within the classroom. This carry over of interest declined in upper grades. Queries that were unimposed but related to an academic subject such as science or social studies were most evident in questions submitted by elementary students, while questions dealing more with career planning, health, death, and anxiety were most frequently addressed by middle school students. The findings also indicated that the use of digital reference services is at its highest in elementary school, peaks in middle school, and falls drastically in high school. Conclusion – 1) How and with what frequency do children use digital reference services to answer their own unimposed questions? The results of this study revealed a trend on the frequency and purpose of use of digital references when seeking answers to self-initiated questions. Elementary students tend to use the digital reference services more often and for answers to questions that may be related to classroom curriculum. Middle school students utilize digital references to look for information pertaining to careers, health and welfare, death and anxiety. High school students submitted questions pertaining to their immediate circumstances (“My Life and My World”) rather than focusing on others. 2) Do digital reference services support self-initiated learning? Of the original 2,258 questions submitted, 13% were considered “informal.” These findings indicate that digital reference services support self-initiated learning. 3) Could digital reference services support the transfer of student motivation and curiosity from formal

机译：评论：西尔弗斯坦，乔安妮。 “只是好奇：孩子们对无用查询的数字参考使用及其在非正式教育中的重要性。”图书馆趋势54.2（2005年秋季）：228-44。目标–确定1）儿童如何以及以何种频率使用数字参考来回答他们自己的未提出的问题; 2）数字参考咨询服务是否支持其自主学习; 3）数字参考咨询服务是否支持将学生的动机和好奇心从正式转移到非正式; 4）教学和软件设计人员在创建支持学习的工具时应考虑哪些因素。设计–归纳分析。设置–在“科学技术卓越奖”期间，虚拟咨询台（VRD）学习中心（http://vrd.askvrd.org/）和美国国家科学基金会（NSF）数字参考服务（http://www.esteme.org），工程和数学教育周（ESTEME），2005年4月11日至16日。主题–普通大众的小学（K-5），初中（6-8）和高中（9-12）学生。分析了一百一十四个问题，但是没有迹象表明提交问题的不同学生的数量。方法–这项研究是使用来自学生，老师，父母和公众的600个问题库进行的，这些问题已提交给两个针对学生的数字参考咨询服务。在科学，技术，工程和数学教育卓越周期间，三百名数学和科学领域的专家自愿回答了提出的问题。由于数字服务采用下拉菜单将用户描述为学生，老师，父母等，因此问题可以缩小为学生提交的问题。这些问题也从问题目的菜单中缩小为标记为“正好好奇”的问题，该菜单包含“书面报告”，“科学博览会项目”和“正好好奇”类别。共分析了来自小学，初中和高中学生的114个独特问题，以确定研究目标。将114个问题加载到定性软件应用程序（HyperResearch）中进行归纳分析。来自学生的问题被编码为小学，初中或高中，并且仅分析了来自学生自身兴趣的问题。主要结果–分析显示，小学生提交了大部分问题。中学生提出的问题最多，其中一些问题比较复杂（给定查询中不止一个问题）。年龄较大的学生提出的问题最少。一项意料之外的发现是，学生的成绩水平与其查询的重点相关，这些查询包括“我的生活”，“我的东西”，“其他人”，“世界”，“宇宙”或“思想”。高中生对与他们周围情况有关的最狭窄的焦点感兴趣，而不是对其他人，世界和宇宙的更大话题感兴趣。大多数中学生对概念感兴趣，而小学生中有45％的问题是关于世界如何运转的。尽管这项研究不是纵向的，但结果表明学生的好奇心可能会随着时间而改变。结果还表明，年龄较小的孩子在教室外表现出与先前在教室内引入的正规学习有关的兴趣。高年级的结转利息下降了。在小学生提交的问题中，最容易提出但与科学或社会研究等学术主题相关的查询，而中学生最常解决与职业规划，健康，死亡和焦虑有关的问题。调查结果还表明，数字参考服务的使用在小学最高，在中学达到顶峰，而在高中急剧下降。结论– 1）儿童如何以及以何种频率使用数字参考服务来回答自己的未提出的问题？这项研究的结果揭示了在寻找对自发性问题的答案时使用数字参考的频率和目的的趋势。小学生倾向于更频繁地使用数字参考服务，并寻求与课堂课程相关的问题的答案。中学生利用数字参考来寻找与职业，健康和福利，死亡和焦虑有关的信息。高中学生提出了与他们当前情况有关的问题（“我的生活和我的世界”），而不是专注于他人。 2）数字参考咨询服务是否支持自主学习？在最初提交的2258个问题中，有13％被认为是“非正式的”。这些发现表明，数字参考咨询服务支持自主学习。 3）数字参考咨询服务能否支持从正规学校转移学生的动机和好奇心

Elementary, Middle, and High School Students Vary in Frequency and Purpose When Using Online Digital References

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